St. Valentine's Day Fine Arts & Craft Show

I applied for my first juried craft show and have been accepted! Yay! Oh, now I have to get a bunch of work done. Awwww. Poor me. Success is so hard. *Wink wink.*

I am beside myself with joy about this show! As their website professes, “This is not Grandma’s doily craft show!" They are showing the works of some very fine artists who do the upscale shows here in Rochester and across the country. And now I am being included in that exclusive club. How cool is that?!

The show is at Schroeder High School at 875 Ridge Rd., Webster, NY, on Saturday, February 9th from 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM.

The purpose is to fundraise for the Schlegel Rd Elementary School PTSA. It will follow a Valentine’s Day theme with jewelry, chocolates, flowers, cards, and candles. Their website shows photos of artists’ work. I am listed under "jewelry". I look forward to walking around and seeing the other displays and meeting people. And buying some chocolate.

Taking credit cards at craft shows has become the norm so I signed up for a virtual terminal. I hope it pays for itself. I’m using ProPay. If you are an Etsy seller they give you a 50% discount (email me for more info).

I hope to see many of you there, even if you have to buy a plane ticket! ☺

My Heart Is Yours

My first 2008 Valentine’s Day card premiered yesterday. It sold in under an hour. So I relisted and that one sold very quickly too! I’m really quite surprised!

It is made from handmade paper sewn together to form a pocket… a place to safely keep your heart. Pasted below the heart is the dictionary definition of love. I added some fancy yarn at the top to finish it off. The aged look comes from brown pigment ink.

I made more so they are still available as I write this. More pictures at my Flickr page.

Since we are talking about Valentine’s Day, I want to mention that custom pendants make an awesome gift. A picture of you two lovebirds in a pendant will make her heart swoon. I can guarantee it. Email me about your ideas!

We Tabled It

The open house at Second Saturday went very well. I’m told the crowd turnout was high for the event. Sales were not fantastic, but I had a great time meeting people and seeing the other artists’ studios in the building. And that’s what the day was all about for me anyway. I was just so happy to be there.

Thank you to Christina Laurel for inviting me to be a guest artist!! Christina is a very talented collage artist whom I met through the Arts Council in Rochester, NY. She has been teaching me a lot about the local arts scene and introducing me to a bunch of great people. At her recent art show at the Williams Gallery, titled “Layers”, I fell in love with one of her pieces of work. To my surprise, she offered a trade for one of my pieces called “Checkered Past”, which is shown above (it’s the big orange collage on the left). So we traded at Second Saturday. I’m thrilled! I’ve never done a trade and it’s great because I can rarely afford artwork I fall in love with.

Getting my table display together proved to be fun work. Mom and I stopped by a thrift shop and found the two candelabras to hang jewelry from. One candelabrum looks like a person wearing a hat. I think the felt bead necklaces look striking displayed this way. We made the tablecloth and the wood display stand on the right in the photograph. Since I have a table display now I plan on applying to a few local craft shows. Yay! More new art adventures!

More photographs at Flickr.

A Little Home

The newest listing in my Esty shop is a lovely little pendant about love and home. The front has a little house with a flower shape punched out. I put a little bit of vintage paper text behind it. A tiny little tree stands next to the house while happy clouds dance in the sky. The back has a handwritten message that reads, “home is where love lives”. A red paper heart accents the wording.

All of these elements are cut from printed scrapbook paper. I ran the edges along my brown ink pad to age them and give more depth. The clouds were printed with white pigment ink using the business end of a retracted ballpoint pen. It’s an easy way to stamp little circles.

This pendant is the first in my 2008 Valentine’s Day series. Watch for more coming this week and next.

Today Was A Howler

The winds gusted to over 70 mph today!! The howling woke us at 5 am. It was unlike anything I’ve heard come from outside. It scared me! Images of The Wizard of Oz whirled in my mind. Does renter’s insurance cover trips to Oz?

Our grill and the chairs on the porch blew over. So did a semi truck on the expressway. Trees are down everywhere including on the garage next to ours. Some folks are still without power. I guess we got paid back for the 2 previous days of spring in January. The temp was 62° when I was still up at 3:23 am this morning! Maybe we are in Oz already.

I fired up my new sewing machine toady to hem a huge piece of crushed black velvet for a tablecloth for the show Saturday. The sewing machine has an automatic needle threader!! I never heard of such a thing. I’m so glad they exist. I automatically threaded my needle, pulled it out, and did it again just to watch it work. It’s the little things, I guess. ☺

The display rack for necklaces is now half finished. Glue takes so long to dry and I get impatient. The cup hooks are screwed into place on the crossbar so I just have to glue and nail it together tomorrow. My inclination is to water down paint and “stain” the wood rather than paint it.

If you are having an art or craft show of some kind, might I recommend something? Go to the thrift store and buy things to use for your display. I got a silver candelabrum for a steal and it’s going to look great with pendants hanging from it. I figure that I need something to entice people to my table. My jewelry is hard to see from across the room so I need my display to say, “come over here!” I hope my kooky ideas don’t make my table look cluttered.

Second Saturday

A friend of mine invited me to be a guest artist at Anderson Alley’s Second Saturdays Open House on January 12th. I am so excited!

Anderson Alley is a huge, gorgeous building that is home to many artists’ studios. Quite a few local Rochester art celebrities work there. Second Saturdays are regular events where people can meet artists, see demonstrations, snack on refreshments, and buy artwork or commission pieces.

Anderson Alley is located in the “Neighborhood of the Arts” part of Rochester, NY. That neighborhood includes major arts organizations in our area like the Memorial Art Gallery, the George Eastman House, Writers and Books, the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester, BOA Editions, Craft Company #6, Village Gate, and many, many galleries, dance studios, art studio spaces, teaching studios and restaurants. It is also home to ArtWalk, a collaborative effort in Rochester to tie all the art and culture in the area together. ArtWalk itself is an outdoor museum of sorts with fancy decorated sidewalks that connect the main arts organizations. Along the route are beautiful artsy bus shelters, public sculptures, and the light poles are mosaics created by the public. I helped make one! I love this part of Rochester as you can see we are an art loving community.

At Second Saturday, I plan to display new collage pendants, hemp jewelry, felt bead necklaces, greeting cards and some other artwork. This is my first time doing anything like this at all! It’s like having a miniature solo art show. Most of my time this past week has been spent getting ready for this event. Thankfully, my mom has been helping polish jewelry and designing necklaces. We craft well together!

I had 5 items for sale in my Etsy shop after the holiday rush. Then a very gracious repeat customer bought 2 pendants and practically wiped out my inventory. Hard problem to have, eh? So now I have to make more. I finished 6 today. I have an art piece to paint and frame and a finished collage to frame. Display ideas need to be dreamed up and created. I’m going to make a necklace display rack from wood dowels and a wood plaque. Busy busy, busy!

If you’re in town, please stop by!

The few remaining items in my Etsy shop will be going with me so my shop will be closed temporarily until I get more stock made. And I hope I have to make a lot more stock because I get bought out at Second Saturday!